1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to methods and apparatuses for the installation and alignment of fasteners. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to the installation and alignment of fasteners for head-up display projectors in the cockpit of an aircraft.
2. Background
In manufacturing an aircraft, placement of materials is important to quality of the aircraft. Further, proper alignment of structures of the aircraft is important for safe and proper functioning of the aircraft.
Currently, proper alignment of structures may be determined through surveying the aircraft with expensive and complicated tools. These tools may include laser trackers and total stations. These tools may not operate well in outdoor environments and may require experienced personnel to operate. The process of determining alignment of a structure on an aircraft may also be called boresighting.
Structures may be attached to the aircraft using fastener assemblies. These fastener assemblies may be aligned in the aircraft by boresighting. After aligning the fastener assemblies, the fastener assemblies may be installed and secured with epoxy potting material. After curing, these fastener assemblies are non-adjustable. The potting material is hard and requires removal to reposition or realign the fastener assemblies. Removing the potting material and accompanying the fastener may take an undesirable amount of energy and time.
Pilots of modern commercial aircraft utilize a number of means to monitor, manage, and control various aspects of their flight and the systems on their aircraft. One means of monitoring the flight includes a head-up display. A head-up display may include a transparent display to allow for display of data without requiring users to look away from their viewpoints. The data is projected onto the transparent display or sometimes an aircraft window by a projector.
A head-up display may display navigation data. It is important to the accuracy of the displayed navigation data that the head-up display projector be properly mounted relative to boresights on the aircraft.
The head-up display projector may be mounted to the aircraft by connecting captive fasteners of the head-up display projector to alignment sockets of fastener assemblies in the aircraft. The fastener assemblies are aligned relative to boresights of the aircraft.
If the fastener assemblies are aligned incorrectly, the head-up display will not function correctly. Before mounting the head-up display projector, the alignment of the fastener assemblies should be verified. If the alignment is incorrect for a fastener assembly, the fastener assembly and potting material would be removed and a new fastener assembly and potting material installed. This process would be time-consuming and costly.
Therefore it would be desirable to have a tool that overcomes issues that occur with current techniques for structure alignment. Further, it would be desirable to have a tool that overcomes issues that occur with realigning structures. Additionally, it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus that take into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as other possible issues.